Jonas Ricci off to great start in diving for West Chester

The swimming season has just reached the holiday break, but West Chester sophomore Jonas Ricci has already qualified for the NCAA Division II diving championships.

Ricci, a Palmyra grad, bettered the NCAA standard in the 1-meter dive in a meet against New York University on Nov. 5. His six-dive score was 286.75. It was his first meet of the season. Then, at The College of New Jersey Diving Invitational on Dec. 4, he bettered the 11-dive standard with a score of 477.98 to finish first.

“Jonas’ assets are his ability to maximize the use of the diving board and spin faster than most divers,” West Chester diving coach Ronn Jenkins said.

Ricci, who was an All-American honorable mention as a freshman, has a solid diving background. His dad, John, was a former diver at West Chester.

The Golden Rams return to the pool Jan. 7 against The College of New Jersey in Baltimore, Md. The Division II NCAA Championship will be held March 8-11 in Birmingham, Ala.

Teag Culver (Palmyra): The 6-foot-2, 170-pound freshman has been a steady point scorer for the Albright men’s swim team. He swam the anchor leg on the 800 free relay that set an Albright Natatorium pool record with a time of 7:21.91 in a 142-86 victory over Cabrini on Nov. 12. He also won the 100 freestyle in 50.74. On Oct. 23, he won the 1,000 freestyle in 10:26.29 and swam a leg on the winning 200 free relay (1:72.55) in a 145-105 triumph over Lycoming.

George Thompson (Northern Lebanon): The freshman got his first taste of college wrestling when he competed for Kutztown in the East Stroudsburg Open to kick off the season on Nov. 6. Wrestling in the 285 class, Thompson was pinned in his first match, came back to score a 3-2 decision in his second match and was eliminated when he was pinned in his third match. He hasn’t seen any action in dual meets because red-shirt junior Ryan Appleby is ahead of him and Appleby is ranked sixth in the nation in Division II.

Allison Warren (Lebanon Catholic): The freshman has played in all seven games off the bench for the Bryn Athyn women’s basketball team,which is 6-1 overall and 4-0 in the North Eastern Athletic Conference. Warren is averaging 5.7 points a game with 15 rebounds, six assists and five steals. She had a college career high 13 points in 23 minutes of action in a 64-50 victory over Gallaudet on Nov. 29 and 10 points in 15 minutes of playing time in a 67-51 triumph over St. Elizabeth on Dec. 4.

Kaitlyn Carmo (Palmyra): The Penn State-Harrisburg women’s basketball team is off to a 1-7 start, but the team is getting solid play from the 5-foot-10 senior forward. Carmo had 19 points in a 79-63 loss to Frostburg State last Wednesday and 19 points in a 68-59 setback to St. Mary’s (Md.) last Saturday. She leads the Lions with a 9.5 average and has hit 11 of 33 3-point attempts (33.3%). Sophomore Rachel Miller (Cedar Crest) has played in seven games with two starts.

Isaac Ray (Northern Lebanon): The 5-foot-11 sophomore guard is averaging 9.6 points a game for the McDaniel men’s basketball team, which is 4-4 overall and 1-3 in the Centennial Conference. He also is averaging 4.0 rebounds a game with 16 assists and five steals. He had a career-high 21 points in a 95-73 victory over York on Nov. 19 and 18 points in a 75-64 victory over Washington (Md.) on Dec. 7. Last Saturday, he had 10 points in a 53-43 non-league victory over Immaculata.

Ian Frazier (Palmyra): The 6-foot sophomore guard leads the Wilson men’s basketball team with 25 assists. He’s averaging 5.3 points a game with 10 rebounds and seven steals. He had a season-high nine points in a 73-67 loss to Penn State Abington on Nov. 30. He didn’t score a point in a 96-71 loss to Hood last Saturday, but had a team-high seven assists and two steals. The Phoenix are 1-6 overall and has a 1-2 record in North Eastern Athletic Conference play.

Glaucio Silva (Cedar Crest): The freshman is having a solid season with the York College men’s swim team. He has a first-place finish in the 100 breaststroke (Oct. 29 against Salisbury) and three second-place finishes in that event (Oct. 22 against Elizabethtown, Nov. 5 against St. Mary’s and Nov. 12 against Washington & Jefferson). He’s been third in various events three times. Silva has also been a member of the 200 free relay which has a first, and the 400 medley relay which has two firsts thus far this season.

Kate Sanborn (Palmyra): The freshman was one of the top performers for the Hood women’s swim team at the Diamond City Invitational on Nov. 19-20 in Wilkes-Barre. She finished sixth out of 31 swimmers in the 100 breaststroke (1:13.12) and sixth out of 22 in the 200 breaststroke (2:36.55). Sanborn also swam on three relay teams – the 200 medley which finished eighth and the 200 free and 400 medley both finishing ninth to help the Blazers finish ninth in the 12-team field.